Hair rollers are well known for their use for drying and curling hair. Hair rollers come in a variety of configurations and sizes for all types of hair. Known types of roller are heatable by microwave energy, and by electric energy.
Microwaveable rollers have been made from a variety of materials in a variety of constructions. Examples of microwaveable rollers are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,820 which describe rollers made from a matrix of a thermoplastic or thermoset material and particulate electromagnetic material such as ferrites and powdered iron. Another known microwaveable hair roller disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,567 includes a solid body having a quantity of silicon gel therein for storing heat energy.
Still another microwaveable hair roller which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,725 has a concentrically wound or tubular, layered composite structure including a water saturated core, a resistive rubber material and a lubricant. The roller can be heated, such as by microwave energy. Other known microwaveable rollers use, for example, a lossy dielectric material or a wicking material to store the microwave energy. Essentially all of the known rollers use some combination of complex structure and/or complex materials to create a hair roller which both withstands the rigors of microwave heating and stores energy for later imparting such energy into a user's hair.
Electrically heated hair rollers are also well known in the art. The well known electrically heated hair rollers are all two piece designs that require the use of a clip or some other attaching device to keep hair from becoming unraveled after it is associated with the electrically heated roller.
Thus, there continues to be a need for a single piece hair roller that is simple in construction, that heats quickly, and that includes hair engaging elements that permit the single piece heatable hair roller to be self-engaging with a swatch of hair.